Exposing The Myth: Tag Team Wrestling Doesn’t Draw Money

2. The Merchandise Numbers

Young Bucks Cash
AEW

Over in WWE, the New Day has maintained huge merchandise numbers for the past several years. Putting out new t-shirts with as much frequency as prime John Cena, the power of positivity was being rewarded with the power of pennies - with Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E bringing in a major dose of additional income from merch sales.

Even though the New Day has been separated into Big E on SmackDown and Kofi and Woods on Raw, why do you think WWE didn't go all-in on a proper breakup of the group? That's simple: the New Day brand is money!

Without any company machine behind them - at least before AEW was founded - the Young Bucks proved that tag team success can be achieved on a ginormous scale. A prime example of that is how over 100,000 Young Bucks t-shirts were sold in just a matter of weeks after going on sale in Hot Topic.

That's not the Bullet Club, that's not the Elite, that's solely the Young Bucks and solely one shirt design - and that's solely in one store chain.

It's numbers like this that make you realise why Nick and Matt Jackson were in no particular rush to run into the arms of WWE when Vince McMahon's sports entertainment juggernaut came a-calling. Instead, the Bucks knew their worth and were backed up by dollars and cents to prove it.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.